Hello Everyone! My name is Warami Eresanara, the latest member of the RefuTea family. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this awesome and genuine initiative that supports refugee efforts in the community. I am going to be sharing with you today why it is important to help refugees. For those of you reading who do not know the meaning of the term "refugee," let me give you a pretty simple and yet explanatory definition of the word. A refugee, according to the Geneva Convention on Refugees, is a person who is outside their country of citizenship because they have well-founded grounds for fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, and are unable to obtain sanctuary from their home country or, owing to such fear, are unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of that country; or in the case of not having a nationality and being outside their country of former habitual residence as a result of such event, are unable or, owing to such fear, are unwilling to return to their country of former habitual residence. Such a person may be called an "asylum seeker" until considered with the status of "refugee" by the Contracting State where they formally make a claim for sanctuary or right of asylum."

Now that we are all familiar with the term, I want you to do something for me, can you do that? Yeah? Good! I want you to imagine a world in which you have to flee for your life, a world where you don’t know who you can really trust, or if you are going to make it out alive. Imagine seeing the people you love the most die in front of you, or never seeing those closest to you ever again because you were separated when a bomb blew off. These are the types of pain and turmoil these refugees have had to face, and we often forget that refugees are people too. They have undergone a lot of chaos and hurt and have to resettle in a different country in order to survive.

It is very easy for us to be so caught up in our own lives that we do not notice that there are people out there who need our help and support in order to continue living. In the recent events with the Syrian refugees, we see that so many of them have had to flee their war torn country so that they can seek safety in Europe and the United States. Many other refugees have died by drowning in their attempt to get into Europe since the start of the Civil War in 2011 (Washington Post). We need to do something, we need to be part of the change that this world desperately needs and this is why we need to help refugees.

RefuTea is a small business dedicated to supporting refugee efforts in the Grand Rapids area. They do this by selling delicious blends of loose leaf tea and using the proceeds to sponsor the refugees. They work with non-profit organizations such as Bethany Christian Services to help refugees comfortably settle in their new environment.

When you buy the tea, you are not just buying it for the sake of consumption, you are giving somebody somewhere the opportunity for a better life! And this is the reason why I believe we should all do what we can to support this cause and help refugees!